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Alan Coates Bouquet (1884–1976): Twentieth-Century Foundations for an Anglican Theology of Religion

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Alan Coates Bouquet (1884–1976): Twentieth-Century Foundations for an Anglican Theology of Religion ATR/96.1 Alan Coates Bouquet (1884–1976): Twentieth-Century Foundations for an Anglican Theology of Religion Kenneth Cracknell* In 1984 the General Synod of the Church of England cordially received the report Towards a Theology for Inter-Faith Dialogue, which affirmed the presence of God with people of other faiths. Many varied influences had led to this positive stance, and this paper notes them. But it seeks primarily to highlight the part played by a Cambridge parish priest, Alan Coates Bouquet (1884– 1976), in shaping Anglican attitudes over many decades. His fre- quently reprinted Pelican books, Comparative Religion (1941) and Sacred Books of the World (1954), were the most accessible sources of information about the world religious traditions in that period. Less widely known is a series of books and pamphlets on what is now known as the theology of religion. In these writings Bouquet set out his own position (“measured tolerance and faith- ful exclusiveness”) and mediated the Logos theologies of F. D. Maurice and B. F. Westcott. The second half of the twentieth century may be seen as a time when Western Christians truly began to come to terms with religious pluralism. On the international level, the World Council of Churches (founded only in 1948 and very much the creature of the theological streams converging in the earlier part of the twentieth century) set up its Sub-Unit on Dialogue with People of Living Faiths and Ideologies in 1971, and moved with some speed to promulgate its Guidelines on * Kenneth Cracknell is a Methodist minister and specialist in interfaith dialogue and theology. After pastoral and educational work in Nigeria and the English East Midlands, he became the first Executive Secretary for Relations with People of Other Faiths of the British Council of Churches in 1978. In 1988 he went to teach in the Cambridge Theological Federation (at Wesley House), and later was Professor of Theology and Global Studies at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas. He is now retired and living in Vermont with his wife, Dr. Susan White. 91 92 Anglican Theological Review Dialogue in 1979. These had been preceded by some fourteen years by the Vatican II document Nostra Aetate. Both these pioneering statements urged a new relationship between Christians and those of other religious paths and obediences. National churches were some- what slower to respond, but respond many eventually did. Acting to- gether through the British Council of Churches, the major denominations and missionary bodies in the U.K. created the Com- mittee for Relations with People of Other Faiths (CRPOF) in 1978 and appointed David Brown, Bishop of Guildford, to be its first mod- erator. This committee enjoyed the immense goodwill of all the churches; these had twice affirmed in the BCC Assembly that the presence of people of other faiths in Britain and Ireland was “within the gracious purposes of God” (a brave and prophetic state- ment given the sinister nationalist currents then, as now, endemic in the U.K.). The churches were looking to the new committee for help and guidance on many national issues: the shape of education, social policy, health care, chaplaincies, and so on. CRPOF saw all these is- sues within its remit, and might have simply contented itself with fo- cusing on such practical matters. But there was another set of challenges that neither the WCC Guidelines on Dialogue nor Nostra Aetate had confronted. Their elo- quent calls for respect and tolerance were hardly inappropriate given the history of Christian defamation and depreciation of Jews and Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists, indeed of all religious others. But if we take just take the example of the WCC document we can see a reluctance to take seriously the theological and missiological dimen- sions that a new relationship between Christians and those of other faith traditions must be built upon. So we find in Paragraph 23 of the Guidelines these two formulations cast in interrogative mode: What is the relation between the universal / creative redemp- tive activity of God towards all humankind and the particular creative / redemptive activity of God in the history of Israel and in the person and work of Jesus Christ? Are Christians to speak of God’s work in the lives of all men and women only in tentative terms of hope that they may experi- ence something of Him, or more positively in terms of God’s self- disclosure to people of living faiths and ideologies and in the struggle of human life?1 1 World Council of Churches, Guidelines on Dialogue with People of Living Faiths and Ideologies (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1979), §23; http://www. Alan Coates Bouquet 93 I have described elsewhere the twists and turns in the turmoil of the debates in world ecumenical circles.2 Suffice it to say that the WCC Assembly meeting in Vancouver in August 1983 could get no further than to reaffirm “the uniqueness of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ” and then somewhat grudgingly to “rec- ognize God’s creative work in the seeking for religious truth among people of other faiths.” The words of an alternative resolution, that “we recognize God’s creative work in the religious experience of peo- ple of other faiths,” were firmly rejected.3 Immediately the contrast with the British situation becomes ap- parent, and nowhere more so than in the response of the General Synod of the Church of England in 1981 to the British Council of Churches’ Guidelines for Dialogue in Britain. In commending these Guidelines, the Synod asked its Board of Mission and Unity for an extensive study of “the theological aspects” that should underlie in- terfaith dialogue. This was duly prepared by the Board’s Inter-Faith Consultative Group under the chairmanship of the then Bishop of Wolverhampton, Barry Rogerson, with Mary Tanner as its secretary, and was presented to the Synod in November 1984. The shape of the report, entitled Towards a Theology for Inter- Faith Dialogue, is straightforward. It begins with reflections on the changed religious map of Britain, stressing the perplexity that this rapid change had brought to so many, including a “genuine fear of what is strange and ‘other’.” It also noted that the Christian commu- nity often found itself admiring the devotion and loyalty to their faith of the new members of British society and was “challenged by the deep springs of faith, wisdom and spirituality, the willingness accept the demanding rules and discipline of their faith, and the close fellow- ship and commitment to the family, often the extended family, that characterises the lives of others.” Because of this, the report observed, “Christians are now required to express their specific witness afresh oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/wcc-programmes/interreligious-dialogue- and-cooperation/interreligious-trust-and-respect/guidelines-on-dialogue-with-peo- ple-of-living-faiths-and-ideologies. 2 See my “Ambivalent Theology and Ambivalent Policy: The World Council of Churches and Interfaith Dialogue 1938–1999,” appendix one in Kenneth Cracknell, In Good and Generous Faith: Christian Responses to Religious Pluralism (Cleveland, Ohio: Pilgrim Press, 2006). 3 See David Gill, ed., Gathered for Life: Official Report VI Assembly World Council of Churches, Vancouver, Canada, 24 July–10 August 1983 (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1983), 40. 94 Anglican Theological Review in the light of the new knowledge which increased contact with other religious tradition brings.”4 The second section of Towards a Theology for Inter-Faith Dia- logue reviewed the resources available for making fresh responses to other religious traditions. Here it relied upon the threefold typology developed by Alan Race, himself a member of the Consultative Group, namely the exclusivist, inclusivist, and pluralist positions discernible within Christian theology. The group was clear that all these three overall positions in relation to other religious faiths embody subtle differences within themselves and that none of these positions may truly reflect the position of any given individual. They could, however, form a starting point in the search for truth in our new expression of our faith, particularly as Christians consider “what has to be retained at all costs and what can be surrendered for the sake of better, richer things and deeper understandings.” Aiming at answering that ques- tion, the report turns “to the biblical witness for guidance and to the insights of the Christian tradition” to help us.5 There follows the centerpiece of the report. In three sections it discusses the Bible as a “Source of Authoritative Guidance,” the “Bib- lical Process,” and a sixfold exposition of what it called “Biblical Point- ers”: the Creating God, the Covenanting God, the Electing God, the Incarnate God, God as Spirit, and the Saving and Judging God. As we shall see, underlying this exposition is a profound expression of the universal action and presence of God in the world. The report concludes with a reaffirmation of the four Principles of Dialogue as set out in the BCC document Guidelines for Dialogue in Britain, sharpening and deepening their various emphases with the theological insights attained in the central discussion.6 It concludes with the personal reflections of members of the group on the process, during which they had “been forced to look again at what it is we believe and by listening to one another have begun to sense that the Spirit is leading us into new perceptions.”7 Its last words come as an 4 Towards a Theology for Inter-Faith Dialogue (London: Church House Publish- ing, 1986), §11, 14. 5 Towards a Theology for Inter-Faith Dialogue,§22–23. 6 The Principles of Dialogue quoted in chapter 7 of Towards a Theology for Inter- Faith Dialogue are: 1.
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